Richard Linklater is looking for real Texans to star with Jack Black

In the January 1998 issue of Texas Monthly, Skip Hollandsworth wrote about the death of Marjorie Nugent, “the richest widow” in the East Texas town of Carthage.

The story, titled “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas,” is encapsulated on the magazine’s website like this:

Marjorie Nugent was the richest widow in an eccentric town full of rich widows. Bernie Tiede was an assistant funeral home director who became her companion. When she disappeared, nobody seemed alarmed. When he confessed to killing her, nobody seemed outraged.

Sounds like a movie plot, right?

Well, it is now. Bellaire High grad Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise) teamed with Hollandsworth on Bernie, a screenplay based on the Texas Monthly piece.

The movie, which will be shot in East Texas and Austin beginning in September, will reunite Linklater with Jack Black (The School of Rock), who will star in the title role. Shirley MacLaine will play the “town’s grande dame.”

“For me, the story captures all the hilarity, friendliness, and sometimes strangeness of small-town Texas life,” Linklater says in press release from his production company, Detour FilmProduction. “It’s also a story filled with the kinds of characters that you think only could be invented in fiction — characters who do things you simply cannot predict.”

Linklater plans to hire anyone, even nonactors, for the roles of townspeople in the film. He describes it as “truly an open casting call.” Anyone interested is asked to submit an audition here.

“I’m trying to make as authentic a portrayal of small-town East Texas life as possible, so I’m looking for the real deal — funny and interesting folks.”